The Final Battle
The Final Battle, by Gilbert Martinez, is a fictional war novel which was started in late 2011, after the author decided to conclude the ''Unending Warfare'' trilogy, even though A Second War already had a solid denouement. Like the novel's predecessors, the narrator is Gilbert himself, recounting the final war he fought in as a young teenager. However, this novel takes a much more serious and darker tone than the preceding novels. It involves the deaths of several main protagonists, kidnapping, and torture. Gilbert plans to finish the novel by 2015. Basic Plot A teenage boy and his friends prepare for the biggest war of their lives. Current Status * Completed? - No * Published? - No Chronology *Each story's events are actually told from the day of August 8, 2034, as noted in Chapter 10 of The Final Battle. "The preceding seven days were a joyously depressing time for me. It was on the day of July 31, 2034, that I received a surprise visit from my old friends. They stayed until yesterday, which was August 7, 2034" (Martinez). Plot Summary ! WARNING: This summary contains major spoilers. ! 'Chapter 1: January 1, 2012' Gil (the narrator) receives a translator device from aliens and finds his friends Daniel (who was killed in Eggman's Last Stand) and Ren (who was killed near the end of A Second War) brought back to life. He discovers his friends also have translator devices. They get transported to Mobius and reunite with their friends. He considers explaining why he has the device, but decides against it. He then transports all of them back to Earth, and for the rest of the day they explore Gil's apartment and play games he has. 'Chapter 2: January 2, 2012' Early next morning, an explosion from outside startles the protagonists awake. Gil realizes that another war is beginning to unfold, so he convinces his friends to immediately evacuate to the Kamchatka Peninsula. They have Tails fly them to their destination, and Tails says that it will take a few days to get to Russia, so they prepare for the long journey. By seven in the morning, they are being flown to Russia, with Tails and Big as the pilots. In the front row is Stimpy, Ren, Gil, and Svën in that order. In the middle row is Daniel, Sonic, Knuckles, and Cigarettes in that order. In the back row is just Shadow. Ren tries to atone for his cruelty, but it doesn't help much. Big puts his controls in auto-pilot and administers what should be Gil's multivitamin solution, but it transforms Gil into a little brown cat. He is so short that he only is a head shorter than Ren. Svën gushes with adoration and tightly hugs Gil, saying "Oh! You're so cute! I could just eat you up!" For the rest of the day, Svën keeps Gil in his clutch, but less tightly. Gil sleeps against Svën's chest, and Svën gently holds him. 'Chapter 3: January 3, 2012' The next morning, Gil finds that the plane is landed on the ground, and everyone is eating breakfast. He hears Svën smacking and swallowing loudly above him. Gil asks if they have already landed in Russia, but Ren says, "We're in Alaska, idiot." Stimpy slaps him in response, and Ren punches him in the face. Big begs them to stop, which arises to full conflict, and Svën, his food still in his mouth, holds Gil tightly. It stops when Cigarettes shouts in anger to “SHUT THE HELL UP ALREADY,” in a very gruff voice. All is silent again. After a half-minute, Gil hears Svën quietly swallow the food in his mouth. Everyone leaves to dispose of their garbage. After the whole situation, everyone remains quiet as they take off from Alaska and start flying over the Aleutian Islands. Svën adores the beauty of the sight and begins to reminisce about his Swedish home in a blissfully retrospective way. This causes him to uncontrollably sing the national anthem of Sweden (“Du Gamla, Du Fria”). By nightfall, they arrive in the Kamchatka Peninsula, and almost everyone is asleep. The only ones awake are Gil, Tails, Big, and Shadow. When they land in a designated spot, they awaken their sleeping friends and exit the aircraft. The crew are greeted by a very familiar face - Zach Khilov, who helped them in the previous war. Here, he is dressed in the uniform of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Gil decides to turn on his translator device to communicate to Zach in Russian by setting the Spoken Language dial to Russian and the Translation Result dial to English. He talks to Zach in Russian (though he hears it as English), and Zach talks to him in Russian. They converse in Russian. It ends with Gil saying in Russian, "No more Russian for now; the others can't understand us." As Gil turns off his translator device, Zach tells them that he will show them the base he set up in Irkutsk. Gil and his friends agree to let Zach drive them to the base by car. During the trip, Zach tells of his experiences in Russia and how he earned the rank of Senior Sergeant so quickly. They arrive at the base, which is entirely in Russian. Gil turns on his translator, sets the Translation Result to English, and the Spoken Language to English. He advises Ren and Daniel to do the same. They have no idea how to control the devices, so Gil teaches them how to use them. Soon, they figure it out and set the dials to match Gil's. While inside the base, they reunite with Dmitry "Jack" Mikhailov. Then, they take a tour of the base. Their tour is interrupted by an impromptu emergency. The enemies were closing in on them, as if to invade. Zach commands Gil and his friends to leave and seek refuge. Due to his small size, Gil falls behind and loses sight of his friends. He calls them out, and it seems like they can't hear him at first, but, eventually, Ren comes back for Gil with a vexed expression. He gets to Gil and slaps him across his face. The force of the slap is enough to knock Gil to the ground and cause him to well tears in his eyes without crying. Ren shows little to no remorse, although he helps Gil up and wipes off his tears. Gil barely manages to tell Ren that he is too tired to neither walk, nor run, so Ren carries Gil in his arms. Gil falls asleep moments later. 'Chapter 4: January 4, 2012' The next morning, Gil wakes up and sees his friends up and around. He also notices that Ren is lying next to him, staring at the ceiling, holding him close with his right arm. Ren looks at Gil in an apologetic way and apologizes for slapping him very hard across the face the night before. Gil accepts the apology and makes Ren swear to at least try not to traumatize him anymore. Gil asks Ren if he has already eaten, and Ren says yes. Just then, Dmitry drags Zach's dying body into the room. Everyone gathers around Zach and watch helplessly as he lays on one of the beds, dying from a gunshot wound to the chest. After saying to Gil and his friends that he wants them to carry on with triumph, Zach dies. Stimpy, Gil, and Tails mourn Zach's death. Gil is reminded of the senseless tragedies of war that he has experienced ever since August 2011. Dmitry pats the mourning friends on the back, then sends them off to training at the base. Gil does not elaborate on the training, mostly due to the fact that all training sessions are strictly confidential, and he'd be tracked down and arrested if ever he told of the training experiences. Due to their experiences in past militaries and wars, Gil and his friends exceed expectations in the AFRF. Their shifts are from 7 AM to 7 PM. They leave at 7 PM and head home to eat dinner. They sit at the rectangular table in the living room of their rental home in this order (clockwise): Big, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Svën, Gil, Ren, and Cigarettes. The seat between Ren and Cigarettes, where Stimpy should be, is empty. Stimpy brings two pepperoni pizzas he made to the table, smiling his blissfully ignorant smile. The chapter ends as Gil stares out of a window near his bed in very deep thought. 'Chapter 5: January 5, 2012' The next morning, Gil and friends find themselves gagged and tied to chairs in an empty, silent room made of metal. They look around, confused and afraid, then are greeted by one of the antagonists - Nack the Weasel, better known by his alias, "Fang the Sniper," for he has one fang larger and sharper than the other. Fang tries to get answers out of the protagonists by threatening to flog them with a cat-o'-nine-tails. He especially taunts Gil, picking on him for his relatively small size. Fang then decides to cut Gil free with his fang and drag him outside of the room. Once outside, Fang removes the cloth from Gil’s mouth and tortures him to try to get answers from him. Fang demands him to divulge the location of their training grounds and of their weapons. When Gil refuses to comply, Fang proceeds to brutally flog him. Big hears Gil's painful screams from inside the room and struggles to break free. When he does, he races outside of the room and confronts Fang, with a weeping Gil at Fang's feet. Big sees that Gil is covered with scratches, cuts, and bruises from Fang's flogging and sails one of his fists in to knock Fang out. Fang responds by sinking his fang into Big’s hand. The fang manages to go completely through Big's hand, distracting Big with severe pain. Fang then takes out his pistol and shoots Big in the shoulder. Big falls to the ground just barely alive. Satisfied with his work, Fang snatches Gil and flees the scene on his blue-and-yellow motorbike. Big comes to and inches his way into the room. Big then unties Sonic, who decides to untie everyone else. Big falls again, his breath laboring and rough. The remaining protagonists gather around Big and reassure him that all will be well. Sonic asks him where Gil is, and Big manages to reveal Gil's fate before dying from his wound. Grief hits the protagonists again, and soon fear takes its place deep in Sonic's heart. Sonic is aware of Fang's potential very well and decides to locate Gil before it's too late. Gus tells him that Fang is taking Gil to a secret enemy base in Warsaw, where he plans to turn him against his friends and kill them, and that Fang is already near the border of Belarus, indicating that they are all located inside of the Smolensk Oblast. Not wanting to waste another second, the remaining protagonists give chase, finding their way throughout the streets in an effort to catch up with Fang and Gil. Meanwhile, Fang stops his motorbike in front of a tavern on the outskirts of the Smolensk Oblast, specifically at the edge of the Rudnyansky District, just hours away from the border of Belarus, and heads inside, taking a hooded Gil inside with him. The owner of the tavern, Ivan Pyanitsa, is in cahoots with Fang and takes him to the back, where no other guests are allowed. While in there, Fang officially assumes the duty of looking after Gil and keeping him away from the protagonists. He then administers chloroform to Gil, which causes Gil to fall unconscious. Fang then exits the tavern and continues into Vitebsk, Belarus. Moments later, Sonic and friends arrive at the tavern, where they discover that guests must not be under the age of 18 years to enter. With that, Shadow, Stimpy, Ren, Svën, and Cigarettes decide to enter the tavern. Svën and Stimpy are daunted by the solemn, malignant countenance of the people inside the tavern. Ivan lies about the five; he tells everyone that they are notorious thieves and should be killed. The guests at the tavern start bounding towards the five protagonists, urging them to flee. Sonic and friends speed away into Belarus. At nightfall, in the village of Lukoml, at the edge of the Vitebsk Oblast, Gil awakens from his forced sleep and finds Fang eating some zrazy in an off-road field, leaning back with his tail against a tall tree. Gil barely manages to stand up and exit the motorbike. He inches toward Fang and timidly asks him for a bite of zrazy. Fang reluctantly allows him to have a bite. Then, he finishes his food. Fang then decides to continue on his way to Warsaw, taking Gil along with him. Before too long, the two enter the Minsk Oblast. Before they manage to reach any nearby villages or cities, Gil falls asleep against his own will. 'Chapter 6: January 6, 2012' Gil wakes up the next morning and finds Fang loudly snoring in a nearby bed. Gil checks his surroundings and finds that he is in a hotel just miles inside of the Brest Oblast. Seeing his chance, Gil tries to sneak out of the room and flee back to Russia. Fang wakes, however, and fires a warning shot at Gil, missing his arm by a centimeter. Fang then warns Gil that he will kill him if he steps out of line. Ultimately, Gil is forced to remain with Fang. Meanwhile, the protagonists are hot on the trail of Fang and Gil and are miles outside of the border of the Brest Oblast. As Fang takes Gil outside of the apartment to bring him to Warsaw, Sonic and friends confront them. Gil is happy to see his friends; however, Fang takes umbrage to them. After staring them down for a brief moment, Fang quickly puts Gil in a headlock and threatens to shoot him in the head if Sonic and friends try to grab him. Nonetheless, Sonic comes forth to try to get Gil. Fang pulls out his pistol and is about to pull the trigger as Gil pleads him not to kill him. Without warning, Fang hastily raises his pistol and shoots Ren in the lower arm. He then shoots Sonic in the leg, hops on his motorbike, and speeds away, taking Gil with him. Gil, not willing to be taken hostage by Fang again, leaps out of the speeding motorbike and lands on a nearby sidewalk, giving himself a road rash in the process. Fang, caught off guard, quickly tries to turn around the motorbike, though he ends up crashing it. Gil runs away as fast as he can, while an enraged Fang bounds for him. Gil doesn’t make it too far before Fang catches up to him and shoots him in the leg, as a way of keeping him from running again. However, Sonic and the others catch up to Fang by surprise and tackle him, leaving Gil to be carried by Tails. The other protagonists flee, having finally reclaimed Gil, as Fang is arrested and thrown in a jail cell. Once the protagonists are miles outside of the Brest Oblast, Tails tends to Gil’s, Ren’s, and Sonic’s injuries. After successfully removing the bullets and cleaning the wounds, Tails places Ren’s left arm in a sling and fashions makeshift canes for Sonic and Gil. The protagonists then have lunch at a local restaurant, while an imprisoned Fang is given a poor man’s version of zrazy for a meal. The protagonists continue journeying back to the military base in Irkutsk, Russia. That night, however, Fang manages to escape his cell, reclaim his weapons and possessions, and flee the jail without being seen. Now free of his prison cell, Fang seeks out to kill Gil and his friends. With his new goal in mind, Fang follows in the footsteps of the protagonists, all the while without being seen, well into the night. In Lukoml, Gus warns Gil and the others about this. Gil bravely says to him, “If he kills me, I’ll drag him down to Hell with me.” The protagonists then sleep for the rest of the night. 'Chapter 7: January 7, 2012' At two o’clock in the morning the next day, Tails shakes Gil awake to solace him, due to Fang’s actions. Afterwards, Tails administers the antidote to the solution that turned Gil into a cat to Gil, then tells him that it won’t affect him until noon. Tails then replaces Gil’s bandages and goes back to sleep, and Gil soon falls asleep as well. He wakes again at eleven fifty-nine in the morning and finds his friends tied up to a few trees. He threatens to turn Fang back in to the police, and Fang chides him in return. Seconds later, Gil returns to his original human state, as a dumbfounded Fang looks on at him. Fang then regains himself and draws out his pistol to shoot and kill Gil, and Gil snatches the gun from him and shoots him in the arm and legs. Seeing the police coming over the horizon, Gil takes Fang and hands him over to the police, recommending them to put him in a straitjacket. Fang furiously growls at him, though is unable to help himself; Gil had dropped his pistol in the field, and his limbs are debilitated. Fang is transported back into the jail, and he is placed in solitary confinement. He is then spoon-fed prison slop. Meanwhile, Gil fashions himself a longer makeshift cane, and he hides Fang’s motorbike in a concealed, narrow alley. Once the protagonists are untied from the trees, the protagonists then continue venturing towards Irkutsk, and arrive in Smolensk, Russia, within a few hours. Once there, they make sure to pass Ivan’s tavern. They then call Dmitry and have him drive them back to Irkutsk, though when they get there they find the base destroyed and abandoned. In response, Dmitry commands the protagonists to find a top-secret area elsewhere in the world to set up a new base and to fly back home. At this point, Gil realizes that his entry into a new war is now an inevitability, though he is finally ready to risk both his and his friends’ lives yet again. With that, Gil and his friends journey back home after packing their belongings from their inn room. Along the flight home, Gil extensively ponders the location of the new base. 'Chapter 8: January 8, 2012' The next morning, Gil and friends land back at Gil’s apartment building, finding the whole area devastated, smoggy, and littered with the bodies of dead soldiers. He also finds his home to be part of the wreckage. Gil is dumbfounded by the sight. He stands on the grass, motionless and silent. The others try to rouse him in vain. Just then, Matt Lyman arrives at the scene, amazed at the amount of decimation his old neighborhood has received. (Summary is incomplete) 'Chapter 9: January 9, 2012' 'Chapter 10: July 31, 2034' In 2034, 22 years after the events have occurred, Gil receives visits from his friends, who are now either at or between 33 and 44 years of age. He notices that Svën is absent, though Ren sadly tells him that he had went missing at sea three months before, and no one has found him yet. Gus quickly is able to indirectly locate him, informing them all that Svën is shipwrecked on the Bahamas and that he is still alive. Everyone is relieved by the news. Afterwards, Gil wishes Sonic a happy birthday (Sonic had turned 39 that same day). Tails then informs Gil that Fang retired from being an outlaw and turned himself in in late 2012. He then says that he is to be released in 2042, and that he is months away from turning 50. Gil says, “I’m just glad he realized that what I had done to him had worked.” Tails looks at him in confusion, but he goes along with it. (Summary is incomplete) 'Chapter 11: January 10, 2012' 'Chapter 12: January 11, 2012' There are more chapters to be summarized. Sit tight. Characters 'Protagonists' 'From Previous Novels' * Gil has about the same role he had in A Second War. In this novel, he is very reluctant to participate in a war, so he convinces Tails to fly the others to Russia. In Chapter 2, he is accidentally turned into a small, brown cat at the hands of Big. This makes him easy fodder for mockery and kidnapping, which Fang carries out in Chapter 5. He returns to normal in Chapter 7, and, upon the destruction of the secret base in Irkutsk, realizes that his involvement in a new war is inevitable. When he and his friends fly back to his home in the United States at the start of Chapter 8, he finds his whole neighborhood torn asunder from battle, his home included in the ashen rubble. * Ren, having been revived by the scientists from Uranus, tries to stray from his violent nature that he had in A Second War, going so far as to try to apologize for his violent actions in both preceding novels. * Stimpy tries to be more supportive of his friends in this novel, rather than just more supportive of Ren. * Daniel, having been revived by the scientists from Uranus, has no knowledge of the events that occurred in both A Second War and after his death in Eggman's Last Stand. Throughout most of this novel, he tries to find out more of what had transpired in the events leading up to his revival. * Matt's role is tougher and more willing to stand up to danger than in the previous novel. * Sonic has about the same role he had played in the preceding novels. * Tails plays a larger role in The Final Battle than in the preceding novels. Not only does he use a gauntlet to transport the protagonists to Gil's room, but he also flies the Cyclone—Tails's aircraft made of a rigid, stainless steel—to get to Russia. * Knuckles has about the same role he had played in the preceding novels. * Big plays a somewhat larger role here than in A Second War. Here, even though he has only some knowledge of how to fly an airplane, he volunteers to copilot the Cyclone. In Chapter 5, Big's fist is punctured and impaled by Fang's fang and is mortally wounded by a bullet to the shoulder. Before he dies, he tells the other protagonists what happened to Gil so that they can track him down and rescue him from Fang. * Zach manages to recruit the protagonists for training in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In a sudden invasion, Zach is mortally wounded by a bullet through his chest. In Chapter 4, he dies on a bed in the protagonists' inn room. * Dmitry Mikhailov, the lost Russian soldier from Eggman's Last Stand, is found to have earned a position in the AFRF. He comforts the mourning protagonists when Zach dies. 'New Characters' * Gus is a psychic friend of Sonic's. His psychic abilities are extremely beneficial to the other protagonists, especially when he uses them to track down Fang and the kidnapped Gil. * Shadow is a former enemy of Sonic's who watched the final events of A Second War from the sidelines. This drew him to the protagonists' cause. * Cigarettes is a laid-back tuxedo cat from Brooklyn who is a former alcoholic. * Svën is Ren's Swedish cousin who has an innocent ignorance to his character. 'Antagonists' * Nack "Fang the Sniper" the Weasel is a notorious, persistent criminal whose alias derives from both his trademark fang, which is larger and sharper than the other, and his penchant for using guns. He makes the novel become very dark, due to his actions in Chapter 5—where he relentlessly flogs Gil with a cat-o'-nine-tails, tortures him to try to get him to reveal secret information, shoots and kills Big, kidnaps Gil, and knocks him out cold with a cloth spiked with chloroform—and Chapter 6—where he threatens Gil's life twice and escapes from his jail cell, just so he can attempt to find and kill Gil and his friends. The only thing he does that is good is allow Gil to have a bite of his zrazy, even though he was albeit reluctant in doing so. * Ivan Pyanitsa is the owner of a tavern located on the edge of the Rudnyansky District of the Smolensk Oblast. He is in cahoots with Fang and, while meeting with him in an off-limits room inside the tavern, agrees to let him watch over Gil. 'Other Characters' * The Mobians * Gil's Family, who evacuate their home and flee to Boise, Idaho, shortly before the protagonists leave for Russia. Trivia * The original version of the novel involved the protagonists being sent to a Nazi-esque concentration camp in the Arabian Peninsula, and an insane Ren leading a group of violent inmates to revolt, all the while drinking human blood and eating human flesh. Realizing his wild imagination overpowered him, the author changed the story into what you see in the Plot Summary. * "Pyanitsa" comes from the Russian word for "drunkard." * The author was forced to learn the locations of cities, oblasts, subjects, and districts in Russia and Belarus while writing. The cities, oblasts, and districts mentioned in the novel are all real locations. * Zrazy is a real meat dish popular in Belarus, as well as in other countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Traditionally, zrazy is made of thin slices of chopped beef, which is flavored with salt and pepper and stuffed with vegetables, mushrooms, eggs, and potato. However, there are numerous stuffing combinations as new ones are encouraged, such as pickles and bacon. Near the end of Chapter 5, Fang is seen eating a small plate of zrazy for dinner. See Also * Eggman's Last Stand * A Second War * Gilbert Martinez * ''Unending Warfare'' trilogy